Monday, September 15, 2008

It is already time to hit the road again. I have had such a fun few weeks home. When Cole was staying with me here in NC we, built a ramp, fixed a pump track, road 3 different pump tracks, rode dh in the rain, dh timed runs at 26West bike park, lake jumped(no back flips learned, we are lame), trail run in a downpour, tons of xc, and just enjoyed being in one place long enough to unpack the ol' gear bag.

Cole left last Monday for Schladming and since I have played a lot less and worked a lot more, but it was good. All last week was spent preparing for the Brevard College home mountain bike race. With rain the weeks prior we still had a lot of trail to build as this was a new race venue. We must of set a record for how fast we were building trail, we barely got the loop finished before the rain set in again. Most of my Thursday and Friday were spent trying to get a new Dual Slalom timing system to work. I spent hours in radio shack and definitely made up for the last 10 years of my life of never going to that store at all, it felt liked I lived there. Down to the wire but at 4:45 Friday afternoon the system was done and WORKED!!!! The race started early Saturday morning with DH, then Short Track XC, and finally DS. I already had about 50 hours in by Friday and Saturday added another 14 to the total. It was a long stressful day but everyone seemed really happy with the race and it was nice to see some organization on the collegiate level. Sunday was XC and I was helping with the scoring, well.... I did a lot of cheering and some riding around on the quad but not much work. It was a pretty relaxing end to the weekend. I had so much fun as a collegiate racer and it is still great to be involved with it all.

Well now it is time to hit the road, I leave out later this week for the second Jeep 48straight series race. We are headed to the Canyons in Park City, Utah. After the race we will head South to Vegas for the trade show and then home again. Once home there is rumor I might get to help build the Dual Slalom track for this years Collegiate National Championships. Hope it works out because that would be a fun project!

Monday, September 1, 2008

This is the handmade series overall trophy from Snowshoe. It is a really bad photo of it, and doesn't show much of the amazing detail that it has but hopefully you get the idea. It was based off the race series poster. The trees are holding the course tape and are watching the riders as they pass. Thanks to the guys at Snowshoe for the great series and for providing something for the series win that I will keep forever.

It was a great weekend of racing. So much fun having teammate Cole Bangert along. We started off the weekend with a little private coaching lesson on Friday with some of my good friends Matt and Ellen Adams. It was a lot of line selection and corner setup with an emphasis on body position. This was a great opportunity for me to really look at the track from all different angles. In the end it was a lot of fun working with them and they seemed to really race well on Sunday.

Saturday we woke up to a really slick West Virginia style course. Lots of roots pointing every direction and slick mud covered rocks everywhere else. Practice was a blast and Cole opened my eyes to lines I have never seen in years of racing at SS. It is great to see someone else's perspective and be able to learn from them. I think we cranked out 7 practice runs before it was time to head to Slalom. After a few hour weather delay(thunder and lightning) we finally got started. Just as the Elite class started getting in the gate for qualies I heard a faint rumble of thunder and knew the race probably wasn't going to happen. Qualifying would be important as the final results would most likely go off of that. Sure enough just as the Elites finished qualies a weather delay was called in by the powers that be at the resort and the race was called off. Cole and I finished 1-2 and it was good to be able to go relax after a long day of DH runs.

Sunday morning saw typical Snowshoe fog which cleared into a beautiful sunny day with light winds. The DH track was drying out fast but from experience I was sure the woods would still be slick. After a quick loop on the lift we saw perfect dry conditions on the open sections, but I still had my doubts on the woods. Cole was the second rider off as he was not in the point series and threw down a pretty sick pedal wheelie, getting dangerously close to the tape down the first straight. It lightened the mood and I think everyone was glad to have him at the race. I got to watch everyone leave the gate on there runs as I was leading the series and the last one to go down the mountain Sunday afternoon. I managed to keep my nerves pretty calm and I think it helped having Cole there as I knew one of us had a great chance of winning. It is a really cool thing we have with Team America, none of the teammates really care if another teamate beats them as long as no one else beats the team. Cole and I did most of our practice together and I knew it was going to be tough. Cole had been in the hot seat since the time he had crossed the line and I barely managed to knock him out of it. 1-2 again for Team America. Super stoked to have Cole out here racing some East Coast races preparing for the upcoming World Cup Finals in Austria.

Snowshoe is a unique place, the racers are all so friendly and that is what makes it so great for me. It seems like it is it's own little world within racing and I am glad to be apart of all the fun that goes on there. To everyone that raced...It was fun and see you next year.